The present invention relates to a measuring device for checking the dimensional accuracy of the track width of curved transport tracks formed by paired rollers lying on a radius of curvature equidistantly from each other. A carrier (bar) arrangemnt can be placed into the transport track and moved along in the transport track with at least two displacement pickups in the bar arrangement spaced apart at a distance determined by the given track width.
Transport tracks described here are components of continuous casting or extrusion installations.
To achieve high-quality semi-finished products and in the long run, high-quality finished products, a clearly defined track width of the roller sets constituting the transport track, identical dimensions of the track width between successive roller sets, and the maintenance of the initial track width are very important.
The maintenance of the specified track width during operation requires continuous monitoring of the transport track.
Previously, monitoring was carried out mainly by means of patterns, calipers or feeler gages under difficult operating conditions such as restricted space, heavy dirt and at high temperatures; dimension checking and the evaluation of the values obtained were time consuming.
There is already known a measuring arrangement of the initially described type for continuous casting or extrusion installations where two scanning displacement pickups or sensors associated with a chain segment of the cold extrusion track, measure the distance between the rollers of each roller set and where the transmitted measured values are evaluated.
This measuring arrangement which uses a straight chain segment as carrier for the displacement pickups does not take into consideration the curvature of the transport track. This results in measuring errors which are unacceptable in view of the high requirements on the accuracy to size of the track width.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a measuring device which ensures perfect checking of the dimensional accuracy to size of the track width of curved constant-radius transport tracks formed by rollers located in pairs on a radius of curvature.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a measuring device of the foregoing character which is substantially simple in construction and may be economically fabricated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a measuring device, as described, which may be readily maintained in service, and which has a substantially long operating life.